Zach Galifianakis and director James Bobin (The Muppets) are a match made in heaven, to the degree that I had to check IMDB to see if Galifianakis ever hopped over from his HBO show Bored to Death for a guest spot on Bobin’s HBO show, Flight of the Conchords.  Nope.  But the pair may make up for the lost opportunity on Paramount’s feature adaptation of A Confederacy of Dunces.  Vulture hears Galifianakis is attached to star as Ignatius Reilly and Bobin is in talks to direct.  Scott Rudin (Moneyball) will produce, and Phil Johnston (Cedar Rapids) is reportedly working on the screenplay.

That’s quite a lineup, but Confederacy of Dunces has a long history of trying and repeatedly failing to become a movie.  Harold Ramis set up the first attempt in 1982, but was derailed when his Ignatius, John Belushi, died.  The role subsequently passed from John Candy to Chris Farley to John Goodman over the years, but never stuck.  The most recent iteration was led by Will Ferrell and director David Gordon Green, but fell by the wayside at Paramount.  When asked what happened to it, Ferrell could only respond, “It’s a mystery.  For some reason that’s a very scary project for people to take on.”  Hit the jump for a synopsis of John Kennedy Toole‘s seemingly unadaptable novel.